Box Elder was one of three Montana schools selected for Appleas ConnectED Grant, receiving approximately $1.8 million in time and supplies, which included 460 iPad tablets for students as well as laptops for faculty and technological support and upgrades to the school.(Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/RION SANDERS)Buy Photo

The students and staff at Box Elder School know how to throw a party a and they threw a big one Tuesday morning.

Balloons, confetti, a DJ, bumping music, dancing with high-fives and cheers spread throughout a all with a big boost from Apple computers.

aHey fifth-graders, are you ready for some iPads?a

The DJas amplified voice boomed across the Box Elder gymnasium a followed by a roar of 40 excited 10-year-oldsa voices.

They were not about to be out-screamed by the second-graders, or the sixth-graders or the even the high school students.

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Confetti rains down on Box Elder School students as they pick up new iPads awarded to the school by Apple on Tuesday. aEvery aide gets an iPad 4.a

Total it up and the Box Elder School District has received more than 540 state-of-the-art tablet devices free of charge, plus storage and charging carts for every classroom, customized applications training for classroom faculty a and just as impressive, a complete structural reconfiguration of the schoolas wireless network to ensure that every classroom is fully Internet compatible.

Preparations for this weekas roll-out began in January, when Apple engineers began arriving to install the necessary infrastructure.

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Box Elder School students use their new iPads awarded to the school by Apple on Tuesday. Box Elder was one of three Montana schools selected by Apple, receiving approximately $1.8 million in time and supplies, which included 460 iPad tablets for students as well as laptops for faculty and technological support and upgrades to the school.